1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to a miniature racket game, in particular, a miniature apparatus for simulating the play of the game tennis.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
There are several different types of miniature tennis games that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art. In one type, a tennis ball may be directed against the opponent's side of a simulated tennis court with the help of a leaf-like device. The leaf is hinged to the court and may be maneuvered by hand with the aid of a crossbar or with the help of a builtin spring under the leaf. Another variation of miniature tennis games is described in the patent to Ries, et al U.S. Pat. No. 1,102,954. According to that version, the play of the game is apparently dictated by the spin of an indicating needle, rather than by the agility of the tennis players. A tennis game requiring the skill and athletic agility of the opponents is disclosed in Italian Pat. No. 508,532. According to that disclosure, two tennis players who are rotatably mounted in a fixed position may be manipulated so as to drive a small ball back and forth over a sloping tennis court. While such a game does require a certain amount of athletic prowess, it does have certain major disadvantages. In particular, the players are immobily fixed on a rotatable spindle. Therefore, that player can only cover that portion of the court which comes within the length of his paddle arm. The game also has the disadvantage that the ball is generally confined to the plane of the table and cannot rise above the surface. In other words, the game is restricted to two-dimensional tennis and is not playable in three dimensions. The foregoing apparatus is typical of prior art tennis games and because such games give an unsatisfactory illusion of the game of tennis, they are frequently monotonous and lacking in excitement.
The use of tethered balls and the like is known in the context of other miniature court games. For instance, O'Carrol, U.S. Pat. No. 483,788 and Shatzer, U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,272 disclose the use of tethered or captive balls in the context of player paddle games. What is lacking in many of these games is either a sufficiently mobile ball and/or a sufficiently mobile player figure.
One relatively exciting player game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,105,687 and issued to D. H. Munro, et al. A similar technique is also discussed in Canadian Pat. No. 680,723 issued to Stein. In both cases, a hockey game playing mechanism is disclosed in which the hockey playing figures are both rotatably and horizontally manipulatable. The rotation of the hockey player figure is accomplished by turning a rod. The lateral movement of the figure is accomplished by pushing the same rod in and out. The pushing of the rod causes the figure to travel forward or backward in a slotted guide groove. While such a mechanism is known to those of ordinary skill in the art, it is believed that such games also can be monotonous and unchallanging because they are restricted to the two dimensional surface of the playing court.